We are back in Kathmandu with one day to go before returning home. As is always the case there was not time along the way to keep the posts up to date. Had it been up to me I would have done fewer things and spent more time soaking in the atmosphere and journaling and relaxing. To carve out these few minutes today I got up @ 6am, made a cup of hotel room coffee, and curled up in a nook by the window.
The political turmoil back home seems of historic proportions. While I can’t wait to get back home in most respects I’m not looking forward to being in the middle of all the social and media frenzy.
What being half a world away makes clear to me is the immense addictive power of the media. And I’m confident it is intentional. It is a large factor in creating social turmoil. And it is a business model.
Here in Nepal we have our smartphones and there is wifi in the hotels and restaurants. We check the different outlets like WSJ, Washington Post, NYT and others to see what’s happening. They each have their particular spin on the same topics and to differing degrees use provacotive headlines to entice you to click and read more. You get to the end of the article and find there was no substance or facts. Sadly the Post is not much better than CNN. They have become like tabloids. Thank you Jeff Bezos.
They all need people to read them or they go out of business. Click or die. The reporters (I don’t see much journalism) need to uncover some scandal or heart rending topic to advance their careers so they are looking for a snake in every woodpile. It seems they put them there in the first place. They have moved the editorial page to the front page. Everything is online so they need to constantly change the spin or the stories 24/7 so people keep clicking throughout the day and the advertising sells.
This is very obvious from afar. Two weeks in the third world has its benefits. I don’t want to be part of that addiction when I get back home. Is there still a good weekly news magazine that can take a breath and analyze what’s really important and why? Like Time and Newsweek used to do. I want to find it if it exists. We don’t need adrenaline news, we get hooked on it, and we become complicit in letting it waste our time and play with our emotions. All it seems to do is sell advertising. I don’t need more stuff. Just give me a marigold.
